


Super Effective

by oisiflaneur



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 10:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8398036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oisiflaneur/pseuds/oisiflaneur
Summary: Squinting, Pidge plants their hands on their knees and leans forward, inspecting their colleague for signs that this is some kind of joke. "Have you… Never played Pokemon?"The next words out of his mouth change the world forever."I thought that's what we were doing."Pidge hollers and scrambles onto their feet, rushing back towards their bedroom. "Stay there! Don't move! We have to fix this!"





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Nine Lives (Endless Possibilities)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7292671) by [Missfoxx21](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missfoxx21/pseuds/Missfoxx21). 



> gift from duran to missfox! he found out at the end of summer that i was itching to write some rarepairs, and... unfortunately, life happened. better late than never, i guess? ;v;7
> 
>  **content warnings** are pretty much nill. i couldn't find an  & tag, but this is a very tame slice of the polypaladin life. i guess be warned that i got way too into this and may or may not have deck ideas for both of them sitting around, but that's all.
> 
> my general writing tag is [here](http://oisiflaneur.tumblr.com/tagged/graywrites) for drabbles and news!

Pidge closes their eyes, pinches the bridge of their nose under their glasses, and breathes in slowly. Working with the boys has taught them to count to ten before opening their mouth. When they reach it, exhaling heavily, they open their eyes and level an intent stare at the young man in front of them. 

"Alright, Keith. What is it about the rules, _exactly_ , are you not understanding. _This time._ "

Frowning, Keith glances back up at them from studying the cards in his hands. "Look, the bonus damages and resistances just don't make sense."

"It's even--" Cutting themself off, Pidge sighs heavily and pulls out their phone, plugging a series of loosely related words into the searchbar with the hopes of finding a relatively simple visual chart. 

Why, exactly, had they agreed to this?

* * *

"Boom! Suck it, Keithy boy!" 

Lance always kicks the door open when Allura isn't around to chide him for it, which at least means that Pidge can always tell when he's arrived. Keith slouches through after him, carrying his backpack in one hand and a surly look on his face.

"This streak doesn't mean anything. I'll win next time, Lance."

"Yeah, sure. This _streak_ is like, ten wins long! You're gonna be on dish duty until the new year." 

Pidge quirks an eyebrow and sighs, putting down the cutlery they were organizing to wander towards them behind the counter. "Don't tell me you two are gambling for responsibilities around here. Allura's not going to be happy about that."

"Oh, pfffft." Lance leans on the bar, splaying his elbows out flat. "It's not like we've been hitting up cockfights or anything! Who do you think we are!"

"It's a card game." Keith supplies helpfully, propping his bag up on one of the stools. "But I made the mistake of letting Lance pick which one we would bet on."

The grin on Lance's face is downright malicious. "I busted out the Pokemon decks."

"Oh, god." Pidge drops their head into their hand, rubbing at their temples with thumb and forefinger.

"Yep." Leaning back, Lance lifts his arms to lace his fingers behind his head, still smirking smugly. "I lent him all the spares to frankenstein himself a new one to use against me, but it's just been brutal."

"Yeah, well! It's _going_ to be brutal for _you_ , soon!"

"Keith," they start, pouring all of their energy into keeping the frustration out of their voice. "Why don't you just. Why do you keep agreeing to his terms?"

Keith stares at them, his brow furrowed as he seems to genuinely be trying to puzzle out the question. "... Because it's a challenge?"

Well. They could understand that, at least.

* * *

Oh. Right. Because for _whatever reason_ , they thought it might be fun to tackle this.

Finding nothing succinct and forced to give up on the image search, Pidge sighs and put their phone away again, resigning themselves to doing this without visual aides. "Look, it's a simplified version of the type matchups in the game proper. It's supposed to be _easier._ "

Keith balks. "Than _what_ , exactly?"

"Well, they only had the first generation to work from when they were designing-- wait a second." Squinting, Pidge plants their hands on their knees and leans forward, inspecting their colleague for signs that this is some kind of joke. "Have you… Never played Pokemon?"

The next words out of his mouth change the world forever.

"I thought that's what we were doing."

Pidge hollers and scrambles onto their feet, rushing back towards their bedroom. "Stay there! Don't move! We have to _fix this!_ "

They came racing back with their 3DS ( their _spare_ , of course, not the collector's edition ) and shoved it into Keith's hands, their face devoid of humor. "Okay, so. You're lucky in a way, the seventh generation is actually a really good place to start. They dumbed it down a lot to make it more accessible, but you can get used to the mechanics and stuff. I'd start you chronologically, but the earlier games are a lot harder, I don't know if they're the best for a beginner..."

Pidge trailed off at the sight of his scowl, before breaking into a grin. "Alright. First gen it is. Should I download Blue, or… Stupid question."

* * *

And so Red it was, and Keith would just have to deal with not having access to Vulpix.

He'd taken Charmander to start the game, to Pidge's complete lack of surprise. They'd always been a shameless backseat gamer, but usually with somewhat larger screens, and had to hover over his shoulder to keep an eye on his progress. 

They were completely unaware of the intent expression, which lit up their face more than the light from the screen.

"For the real experience, you should really be playing this on an old Gameboy and struggling to see anything." They mutter at one point, leaning heavily on him. Keith had gotten _into_ it, and was utterly focused on getting to Pewter city, merely grunting noncommittally at Pidge's observations. 

After a few more minutes of watching him walk around, Pidge realizes that he's lost, and sighs wearily. "Give me that. I'll get you to a Pokecenter."

"What? No! I can do it!"

"Your team is on its last legs!" Pidge shoots back, grabbing for the DS. They scramble over him to reach it, climbing inadvertently into his lap. When they finally wrestle the machine away from a pouting Keith, they flop their weight back against his chest and settle on top of his crossed legs. "See, you gotta keep heading north. Don't forget the path, alright? You're probably gonna have to go back and grind a ton for the first gym."

"Don't tell me what to do."

"Fine! Take on Brock with just your useless fire starter, then!"

" _Don't talk about Char like that!_ "

* * *

Pidge yawns and stretches, their elbow going straight into the side of Keith's face.

"Ow." He mutters, deadpan, and shifts to get more comfortable with Pidge spilling out from his grasp. 

"You're still playing?" They blink up at him, staring at the machine in his hands. Looks like Celadon, judging by the rows of houses. 

"Yeah. I got a fire dog."

"Growlithe? Yeah, that's one of the exclusives-- wait. Is your team all fire types?"

"Uuuuh," Keith mumbles, bringing up the menu. Sitting up properly in his lap, Pidge leans over to get a better look at the screen.

Charmeleon, Growlithe… Oh, thank god. Nidorino, Poliwhirl, Meowth, and Gastly. There might be hope for him yet. 

"Okay, pass it over. You're gonna get an Eevee soon, and if you turn it into a Flareon, I swear I'll delete your save file."

* * *

Keith just ended up borrowing the 3DS, tucking it into a pocket of his backpack as they agree that he'll come back next weekend for the lesson proper. Pidge notices him playing during his lunch break for the first few days.

When he hands the device back to them, they pull him aside and unzip their backpack, grinning widely.

"Okay, you want the second generation, or the newest?"

* * *

They don't wait for him to catch up fully on the franchise before putting the knowledge to work. It turns out to have been a potential detriment: Keith keeps asking why this or that type was merged with the others, and Pidge genuinely doesn't know. 

"So that you have a decent chance of drawing a useful energy card, okay!" They eventually yell, throwing their arms in the air. Keith just nods solemnly, and doesn't bring it up again, the answer seemingly accepted. 

Slowly, with the extras from his collection and, to their surprise, the booster packs that Keith shows up with on the third saturday, they build him a deck. It's mostly fire types, but Pidge manages to argue him into adding normal, at the very least. "Those double energy cards are too good to ignore!"

The first time he wins against them is when they use the spare green deck, and get a string of poor draws. They're still strangely proud of him, giving him a thumbs up as he beams and shuffles for another round. 

"Alright, well. If you can beat me, you can definitely beat Lance. You've gotta let me watch, though. I want to see my student in his moment of glory."

* * *

"Aaaaugh! This is so _unfair!_ " Lance announces his entrance with a grumble at maximum volume. "I never made you bet a whole month's worth of trash duty!"

"Suck it, Lancey boy." Keith says quietly, with a barely hidden smile. "You _would've_ if I'd lost. You made the bet."

Biting their lip to keep from beaming too widely, Pidge tries to look stern as Lance stomps off into the back. "I thought I told you to invite me, you jerk."

Keith leans against the counter, his own smile growing. "He made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

"Well, I'm glad I could help even the score." Pidge chuckles, before lifting themselves slightly on the counter to reach Keith's cheek, pressing a kiss to the side of his face.

* * *

They'd expected him to stop showing up after that; after all, the end goal had been achieved. But the next weekend, Pidge was still startled out of their reading by the doorbell ringing at exactly quarter past four.

Saturday afternoon games had just become part of the routine, somewhere along the way, and Pidge was pleasantly surprised to find that they wanted it to stay that way.


End file.
